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Storyboard Process, Interview preparation and “B-Roll” Video Taping

by Daniel Hopkins '13, CEF Summer Media Intern

June 22, 2012

On the morning of Monday June 11th during our weekly meeting, I presented my completed storyboards for each video that I will be working on to Mieko Ozeki, Michelle Smith and the four other CEF interns that I’m working beside. Both the process of creating the storyboards, as well as receiving feedback from my peers will be very helpful in producing well-crafted, thoughtful video documentations. The feedback from the group helped me to understand how important it’s going to be to accurately and concisely portray certain messages and information, in only 3-5 minutes. Michelle and Mieko were able to provide the names of several important individuals whom I should interview in order to obtain the best information possible. One of these individuals, Bob Vaughn who is the director of capital planning and management, will be a great candidate for describing the overall goals of the CCREFS, as well as why it such a unique project. Ryan, Rich and Jack were able to answer a few technical questions I had about the PV installation process at the Equine Center. Their answers provided insight on a conflict that the installation team is facing with a non-compatible circuit breaker as well as how energy will be converted from the solar panels into usable power at the farm. Lastly, this feedback session provided some clarity for what the main goals and outcomes of each project actually are. The Equine Center PV installation project serves a few main purposes. Not only will the installation help minimize UVM’s dependence on non-renewable energy sources, but there is also the potential for us to receive incentives from the state of VT for doing so. Another goal of this project is to set an example for other agricultural building owners to take into consideration the use of renewable energy. The CCREFS serves as an approach to reaching our campus’s goal of carbon neutrality.

Presenting my own ideas and receiving feedback from a wider audience turned out to be a very helpful method for planning and organizing my videos. In fact, this method seems to be very practical for almost any type of project planning. In my case, it allowed me to gain a better direction in what I hope to portray in these video shorts, as well as what types of questions I’ll need to be asking my interviewee’s in order to receive thoughtful responses. Although I have begun formulating some questions for each interview, I’ll be working with Mieko, Michelle, Jack Lehrecke and Kierstin Wall this week and next to finalize these questions.

The last piece of feedback I received from the group was on the position of the time-lapse camera. It was quickly decided that we would want a total of two time-lapse cameras. One from a nearby tree to give a wide-angle shot of the entire building, and another from the CREAM building to the right of the Equine Center to show a closer up and more detailed perspective of the installation. Shortly after presenting these storyboards, Michelle and I set up the wide angle time-lapse camera. I have continued to check its battery life and view the captured picture’s in order to ensure that its position remains constant. On Thursday, June 21st Michelle and I installed the second time-lapse camera on a wooden post on the side of the CREAM building as well. After a good two weeks of angle experimentation, both time-lapse cameras are ready for action!

Over the past two weeks I began visiting the Equine Center to film various aspects of the farm that consume energy on a daily basis. The purpose of this is to obtain video clips to be used during voice- overs as the farm manager speaks about energy usage at the farm during our interview. This will keep the audience both interested and connected to the video. I also managed to speak with Kirk on the morning of June 19th about specific installation milestones to take place over the next week. This will help me plan out when I should come back to the farm to film close ups of the installation process, which will be used as voice-over clips.